GB2149652 to Sprout Richard Michael & Blank Heinz Ingo (see FIG. 1a, “Prior Art”, depicting FIGS. 1 and 2 of the above-cited publication) discloses “ . . . (A) support surface indicated generally by numeral 2 comprises three distinct support members 21, 22 and 23 which are arranged along the length of the table in an end to end adjacent manner . . . . The support member 21 is located at the ‘head’ end 24 of the table and comprises a pair of rectangular cushions 25 and 26 which are spaced apart slightly on either side of the longitudinal axis of the table so as to provide a small gap 27 there between. This gap 27 serves to accommodate a patient's nose when lying on the table in the prone position . . . . The cushions 25 and 26 of this member 21 which is hereinafter referred to as the cervical support member, are mounted to a suitable mechanism which is hinged to the upper mechanism 7 along its end 28 thereby enabling the cervical support member 21 to be raised and lowered through a vertical angle . . . ”
Another exemplary type of a therapeutic apparatus may comprise several main co-planar surfaces, which may be pivoted with respect to each other in the horizontal and/or vertical planes. As will be well appreciated by those skilled in the art, this enables one part of a patient's anatomy to be pivoted about another part and so as to enable the angular orientation of two or more sections of a person's anatomy to be changed, thereby making them more accessible or more amenable to application of various techniques.
A considerable portion of therapeutic apparatuses known in the art have been designed for specific operations, which make them unsuitable for use with a broad spectrum of therapeutic techniques. Thus a practitioner wishing to practice such a broad spectrum of techniques would be required the use of several types of the therapeutic apparatuses if he wishes to achieve good results.
Another aspect of handing patients, mostly disabled patients, is discussed in JP9075402 to Nakano Mikio & Nakagawa Takeo (see FIG. 1b, “Prior Art”, depicting FIG. 3 of JP9075402) aiming “ . . . To provide a table for care of a patient or handicapped which permits a person in care to make works with (a) lesser burden . . . ”, (by providing a) “ . . . table for care of a patient or handicapped (which) has a first attitude changing means A where the floor part 5 is supported on the base frame 1 to allow a user to lie thereon facing down and which changes him to the lower limbs bent attitude so that his knee joints and hip joint are bent and a second attitude changing means B which changes to the sitting attitude where his whole body is rising. A seat part is furnished to support the hip in the sitting attitude, and the floor part 5 is composed of a first floor section 7 to support the upper body including the face, breast, and belly of the user in lying situation facing down, a second floor section 8 to support the thighs, and a third floor section 9 to support the lower limbs and feet. The adjoining ends of these floor sections 7, 8, 9 are coupled together by pivoting, and the means A bends the sections 8, 9 relative to the section 7 so that an approx. L-form is generated when viewed in the side elevation, while the means B rotates the sections 7, 8, 9 in a single piece around (a) horizontal axis, and a notch 7g is formed at a part of the upper end part of the floor section 7 which copes with the face of the user lying facing down.”
Posture of patients may be considered as a manner in which a patient's body is arranged and/or organized about the patient's vector of gravity. Thus, one possible aspect of posture may be related to the body part which bears the weight of the patient. In such cases, a possible outcome of posture change may be considered as changing the body part which bears the body weight of the patient.
Another aspect recently reported is the importance of using prone position in sleep and/or therapy. It is well known that at least certain aspects of therapy need to be conducted or carried out when the patient is in a prone position. Recently, at least one article was published portraying an importance of positioning people in a prone position: “ . . . however, subjects who reported that they mostly slept in the prone position . . . were significantly less likely to report the presence of a medical condition which affected their sleep quality . . . ” (Gordon, Grimmer, Trott, Sleep Position, Age, Gender, Sleep Quality and Waking Cervico-Thoracic Symptoms, The Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice, Vol. 5 No. 1, 2007).
However, performing posture changes of patients, i.e., transferring patients to and/or from different positions and/or postures, may become rather daunting and demanding on nursing staff. One such posture change, all too common in nursing and health practices, may be turning, or rotation of a patient from a supine posture to a prone posture, and vice verse. Intensive and Critical Care Nursing (2001) published an article by McCormick and Blackwood, Nursing the ARDS patient in the prone position . . . stating in “techniques of Turning” that:
“Patients should be turned when they are (relatively) stable. The patient must be adequately sedated and is usually receiving muscle relaxants.
“A. Five staff are required to perform the maneuver. A doctor or experienced nurse, to manage the head and tracheal tube and co-ordinate the turn and two people each side of the patient.”
Evidently, much care and resources need to be dedicated to the mere operation of turning the patient to and/or from the prone position.
An exemplary therapeutic apparatus specifically designed to rotate a patient to a prone position is the RotoProne™, which rotates a possibly unconscious patient from a supine to a prone position. Certainly, since a patient may be unconscious, such rotation must be initiated by the practitioner, with the patient being essentially passive. Further, RotoProne™ [(http://www.rotoprone.com/therapy.html)] state, on their web page, incorporated herein by reference, that “ . . . The RotoProne™ Therapy System automates Prone Therapy and Kinetic Therapy for patients suffering from pulmonary complications associated with immobility. Automating these therapies can help manage the patient-handling risks associated with manual proning.” Moreover, RotoProne™ state that “Multiple Clinical Studies [(see http://www.rotoprone.com/studies.html)] have demonstrated that Prone Therapy can provide:
“Rapid Oxygenation within the first hour of pronation11,12 
“Significant Improvements in Oxygenation2,11 
“Decreased Ventilator Associated Lung Injury3,6,7 
Clinical Studies have also demonstrated that Prone Therapy may provide:
“Reduction in Ventilator Days2,5 
“Reduction in Length of Stay2,5”
However, the system discussed above requires strapping down the patient: to quote News story aired on WOAI TV [(see http://www.rotoprone.com/videos/woai.html, (incorporated herein by reference, in its entirety)] “ . . . Here is how it works—Patients are tightly strapped in from head to toe. The machine pivots the patient face down . . . ” (leaving them, effectively, hanging on the strapping) and with a rigid surface (which was initially used to support the patient in a supine posture) blocking any access to the patient's rear—a pre-requisite of many therapeutic procedures, so that these therapeutic operations may be severely hampered.
While, admittedly, prone positioning may be, at least, beneficial in administering therapy, or may even be necessary to practice and/or apply certain modalities of physical therapies, there remains yet a long—felt need to transferring patients to and/or from a prone position.